London with Diane & Rich!

In the UK on business, I stayed the weekend and met up with cousin/sister Diane Wallis and her husband Rich for a great weekend in drizzly London town.

Diane is the daughter of my late Godfather Russ Johnson, (twin brother to my Dad) and my beloved Auntie Joyce.They were taking their Holiday of a lifetime across Europe and their time in London co-incided when I was there!

I met them at the base of the Queen Victoria monument outside Buckingham Palace, following a lovely walk from the hotel down the Strand and The Mall to the Palace.

From there we walked back to the Hotel, stopping in Covent Garden to purchase play tickets for that evening and the following day.

That evening, we met up with Di & Rich's Spokane based traveling companions and the 7 of us had dinner at one of my favourite London, eateries, Salieri's on the Strand, where Kathy & I have been dining since 1998.

After the dinner, Diane, Rich & I excused ourselves and nipped over to the Vaudeville Theatre for that night's production of "Ladykillers", which we thoroughly enjoyed.

On Saturday morning, the 3 of us were off to the Tower of London where we spent a great morning touring all that this fortress had to offer. Though it drizzled much of the morning, this is the site to see in London.

Diane & Rich toured the Crown Jewels and we all spent a long time in Wardrobe Tower, which dates back to the 11th century. We walked the catwalk of the Tower providing a great view of Tower Bridge.

Following, we left early afternoon to catch the Matinee of "Let It Be" playing at the Savoy Theatre and had a great time listenting to all the hits of the Beatles we first heard as kids, watching the Ed Sullivan show back in the 1960's.

Dinner that night was at London favourite "Sticky Fingers" owned by former Rolling Stone BIll Wyman. Diane had the Ribs, Rich had a salad and I enjoyed a burger at this shrine to the glory days of the Stones.

After dinner Diane spied the Number 9 bus and we rode the top of that doubledecker all the way back to our hotel on The Strand.

Sunday, had me back at Heathrow headed home (even though the flight got cancelled), while Diane & Rick prepared the take the Eurostar through the Chunnel to Paris on the last leg of their trip.